Monday, June 23, 2008

Putting the "pill" back in "pilgrim". . .

Hello, dear friends!

I'm mad, because I wanted to write a long, languorous post about all the delightful books I've been reading and the yum-summer recipes I've been making. Only I waited too long and now we're leaving to drive to Williamsburg, VA to meet up with Michael's family. Which me 20 hours of road-trip luck and 20 hours of road-trip food happiness and 4 days of contented Colonial bafflement. I'll let you know. I only wish I'd written with enough time to ask for advice. . .

Ben and Birdy already got a little taste of settlement at Ben's second-grade Colonial feast a few weeks ago. Talk about putting the "grim" back in pilgrim.

26 comments:

If you can stand it, please share your suggestions/things to avoid at all cost/other tips on the Williamsburg experience. We've planned a trip for August and I'd like to hear (read, actually) your thoughts on the W-with-kids approach. My kids are younger, so we haven't covered war/guns/slaves yet, so I'm hoping we can gloss over that and focus on the colonial experience and the boat part.....maybe wishful thinking on my part. Hope you had a great trip!

Although I'm sorry he got sick, I love the column about Ben barfing. I have learned to never, EVER say, "It's been a long time since..." (woke up in the night, wet the bed, got a cold, etc etc). It's almost scary how often it happens to come true. You should also never say, "This is going to be the Best Christmas (or birthday, or Hanukkah) Ever!" I said that last year...during the 5:00 services my little girl got an unnaturally flushed look and nuclear-grade gas. By 7:00 we were in the throes of the worst intestinal virus I've ever seen. Christmas Eve of '07 has passed into legend as "Night of a Thousand Poops". To heck with me and my optimism! Now I just try to be grateful we made it through today. :)

We went to Colonial Williamsburg at least annually when I was a kid and we LOVED it - the horse-drawn carriages, the musket balls in the gift shop, the ginger cakes in the bakery, writing with a slate pencil on handheld boards - it was great fun. But now they charge a bazillion dollars to stay there and many of their hotels actually forbid children! (I'm talking about the C.W. Foundation properties) So please, let us know where you stay or my kids may never get there. Have fun!!

I just recently found your blog, and I wanted to tell how much I enjoy your work. I stumbled on the premiere issue of Wondertime a couple years ago at the drugstore on a truly awful day when I was waiting to have the third antibiotic prescription filled for my son's unstoppable ear infection. I opened it up and started reading your article about the zen of parenting. I can still picture the dog you described rolling around in the snow.

Since then, I have become a true fan, passing along your wit and wisdom to the other moms in my life (and I subscribed to Wondertime for the next hundred years). Thank you, thank you for so truthfully yet respectfully sharing your journey.

hahahaha! I live right by colonial Williamsburg and have always found it completely hilarious when I see things on tv or in movies or now in your blog about going there for a vacation. We, as children, always had to make at least one field trip to that place every year. I'm sure it's fabulous if you don't live here (just like every other destination)! Have a great time and make sure you ask the interpreters lots on insane question and try to make them break out of character (that's the most fun we could have as kids).

I agree with poster Amy that Williamsburg in July is likely to be so hot you need to find time away from it! There's a great, free (or it was)ferry over the James to Surrey. I loved the Colonial Williamsburg part as a child (the ginger cakes in the bakery! Teresa's right) and dining in a tavern by candlelight. I went as a child and went back to attend law school as an adult, and I still loved it. What struck me as an adult was that all that history they filled me with in my younger, Massachusetts-based years (Pilgrims)was sneakily WRONG, because the settlement on the James PREDATED the Pilgrims. Huh. Which is a long way of saying, I hope while in Williamsburg you arlso got to go to Jamestown, a short jaunt (today) down the Colonial Parkway, and which has also been restored with character actors and was great fun for my 5 year old niece two years ago. And you can camp there!

yes, I agree. T-shirt skirts? Please share! Just loved the pics of your lovely kids both in your blog and wondertime. We were just in Virginia last week. So many things to do there!!! I hope you're having a lovely summer. Besos, Yamile

If you get a chance while road tripping-- between 'are we there yet's,' bad car games (would never recommend the card deck "52 things to do in a car" to anyone....except maybe my mother-in-law:)), potty pit-stops, or front-seat-turn-arounds-to-give-snack-clean-up-spilled-snack-wipe-noses-reach-the-book/blankie/cup/toy-that-fell-on-the-floor...I have a list of some good books I've been reading you might want to pick up for the ride home...Without a Map by Meredith Hall-- just really incredible, beautiful writing. She's a poet-- that's obvious-- and her memoir weaves motherhood and growing into the person you want to be into some lovely shorts. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-- I'm ashamed to say I did not read this until two weeks ago-- but ah, how very nice (and summer-like) to get lost in the slow cadence rarely found in writing today. The Opposite of Love...if, of course, you can get past both the title and the cover art. It's a total potato chip book, but hey, in a car trip with two kids and a husband, your brain probably can't process much else! Maynard and Jennica. There are, like, 35 narrators or something crazy in this one, including a cat and some dead folks. Strange, but in the end, pretty darn worth the read, and as a mom of three young kids, the chaos in the writing seemed to go well with my mood! That being said, I always bring four or five books to read on a road trip, and never manage to crack one for longer than 10 minutes. So perhaps my other suggestion would be to check out the Barnstormers audio book series. Good clean fun for the whole fam. Love your stuff, btw.

If you get a chance while road tripping-- between 'are we there yet's,' bad car games (would never recommend the card deck "52 things to do in a car" to anyone....except maybe my mother-in-law:)), potty pit-stops, or front-seat-turn-arounds-to-give-snack-clean-up-spilled-snack-wipe-noses-reach-the-book/blankie/cup/toy-that-fell-on-the-floor...I have a list of some good books I've been reading you might want to pick up for the ride home...Without a Map by Meredith Hall-- just really incredible, beautiful writing. She's a poet-- that's obvious-- and her memoir weaves motherhood and growing into the person you want to be into some lovely shorts. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-- I'm ashamed to say I did not read this until two weeks ago-- but ah, how very nice (and summer-like) to get lost in the slow cadence rarely found in writing today. The Opposite of Love...if, of course, you can get past both the title and the cover art. It's a total potato chip book, but hey, in a car trip with two kids and a husband, your brain probably can't process much else! Maynard and Jennica. There are, like, 35 narrators or something crazy in this one, including a cat and some dead folks. Strange, but in the end, pretty darn worth the read, and as a mom of three young kids, the chaos in the writing seemed to go well with my mood! That being said, I always bring four or five books to read on a road trip, and never manage to crack one for longer than 10 minutes. So perhaps my other suggestion would be to check out the Barnstormers audio book series. Good clean fun for the whole fam. Love your stuff, btw.

I love your latest post, The Life, over at Wondertime. My son will be 7 soon and daughter is newly 4 and I know I've said this before, but so much of what you write it so familiar. I know just what you mean about the balance between thinking about life and living it. There is more time now to just be and do.

I still remember a piece you wrote about new parents bobbing amongst the waves in the ocean. Why is it then now that I finally feel as if I am back on shore, I sometimes want to throw myself right back in. I remember too your post about the pregnancy test at Target and one of your last posts at Baby Center in which you disclosed a certain longing for another baby. I wrestle with this in my own mind; the desire to add another sweetie to our family and the certain level of comfort and easiness that comes with growing up children.

Of course, my daughter is currently screeching at her brother so at the moment that longing is not so much there. ;)

The last time I was in Williamsburg VA was August of 1976! I was 12 years old. On the way out of the Blacksmith's shop I stepped on a cockroach half as long as my foot. Yes, it was stinkin' hot - and being the bicentennial - ridiculously crowded.But hey! Have fun!

This comment has nothing whatsoever to do with your post, but lately my 4 year old has been making me do the voices of a variety of stuffed animals, balloons, and even a fully articulated figurine of Spiderman. I always have to use the same voice - high pitched and a bit squeaky. I keep thinking of an older post of yours from your Parent Center days where you talk about doing this with Ben and a horse. It is among the most annoying and boring things I could imagine doing but how can I say no?